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* President Sisi calls emergency meeting in response to attacks (Adds state of emergency in parts of North Sinai)

By Yusri Mohamed

ISMAILIA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Two attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed 33 security personnel on Friday, security sources said, in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was overthrown last year.

The violence prompted Egypt to declare a three-month state of emergency in parts of North Sinai, where the violence took place, the state news agency reported.

The attacks are a setback for the government, which had managed over the past few months to make some progress in the struggle against an Islamist militant insurgency in the Sinai as it focuses on trying to repair the economy.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has also expressed serious concerns over militants who are thriving in the chaos of post-Gaddafi Libya and are opposed to the Cairo government.

Thirty people were killed in the first attack in the al-Kharouba area northwest of al-Arish, near the Gaza Strip, the sources said. Military helicopters transferred the dead and wounded to Cairo. Among them were several senior officers from the Second Field Army based in Ismailia, security sources said.

The car bomb attack targeted two armoured vehicles at a checkpoint near an army installation, the sources said. They said the big explosion and high death toll were likely due to the vehicles being loaded with ammunition and heavy weapons.

Security officials gave conflicting accounts of the first attack, with one Sinai-based official saying a rocket-propelled grenade was used. More than 25 people were wounded.

Hours later, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in al-Arish, killing three members of the security forces, officials said.

The casualties were transported to Cairo by military helicopters, state news agency MENA reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack. Similar previous operations have been claimed by Egypt's most active militant group, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

Though the vast peninsula has long been a security headache for Egypt and its neighbours, the removal of President Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood brought the region new violence that has morphed into an Islamist insurgency

Security forces have been squaring off against militants who have killed hundreds of soldiers and police since the army toppled Mursi in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

Most attacks have been in Sinai, although militant groups have claimed responsibility over the past year for deadly bomb attacks on state installations in the Nile Delta and in Cairo.

The Brotherhood says it is peaceful and denies government claims it has links to the Sinai-based Islamist militants.

"COMBING OPERATION"

Sisi convened the National Defence Council on Friday evening for an emergency meeting in response to what his office called "a terrorist attack".

Shortly after the second attack, Sinai residents reported that phone lines and Internet services had been cut.

Security sources said the communications shutdown coincided with the beginning of a military operation east of al-Arish in response to the attacks. Apache helicopters bombed areas south of the towns of Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah, near the Gaza Strip, which sources said were believed to be "militant hideouts."

MENA said armed forces were "conducting a large-scale combing operation" involving military helicopters and special forces troops, but gave no further details.

This is not the first time in the 16 months since Mursi's overthrow when news of a deadly attack against security forces in the Sinai has been swiftly followed by official announcements about a fresh assault on militants.

Washington provides Cairo with military aid of around $1.3 billion annually. A partial suspension of aid following Mursi's ouster was relaxed in April, when the U.S. said it would deliver 10 Apache helicopters, which have not yet arrived in Egypt.

The Pentagon said at the time that aid would help Egypt's counter-terrorism operations in the Sinai.

Six soldiers were killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb southwest of al-Arish.

Security officials have expressed concern that Islamic State militants who control parts of Iraq and Syria have forged ties with radical Islamist groups in Egypt. (Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy and Mostafa Hashem; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Gunna Dickson)

Paris (AFP) - Without a massive scaleup of aid, the Ebola epidemic in Liberia will explode, according to a computer simulation published Friday of the nation's most populous county.Related Stories

WHO: More than 8,000 people have been infected in current Ebola outbreak The Week (RSS) WHO says Ebola epidemic still spreading in West Africa Reuters WHO: 10,000 new Ebola cases per week could be seen Associated Press If no checks, more Ebola cases might leave Africa Associated Press Chronology: Worst Ebola outbreak on record tests global response Reuters

The study -- using assumptions challenged by some experts -- projected that by December 15, Montserrado county could have up to 171,000 cases of Ebola.

The total would be 12 percent, or nearly one in eight, of the county's population of 1.38 million.

More than 90,000 of these cases would be fatal, it said.

Two assumptions underpin the scenario, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

One is that every person with Ebola will go on to infect 2.49 other people, statistically speaking.

The other is based on the state of health measures that prevailed in Montserrado as of September 23.

Thus the total of 170,996 cases by December 15 is based on the assumption that the September 23 level of response goes unchanged.View photos A view of the Medecins Sans Frontieres Ebola treatment …A view of the Medecins Sans Frontieres Ebola treatment center in the Liberian capital Monrovia, on O …

If, during November, another 4,800 beds are installed at treatment centres and health workers speed up fivefold the detection rate of Ebola cases, 77,312 Ebola cases could be averted by December 15, the study said.

This would rise to 97,940 averted cases if protective kits of soap, bleach, gloves and masks are distributed to households.

But if all these measures have been in place in October, 137,432 out of the predicted cases would have been avoided by December 15, according to the model.

"Our predictions highlight the rapidly closing window of opportunity for controlling the outbreak and averting a catastrophic toll of new Ebola cases and deaths in the coming months," said Alison Galvani, a professor of epidemiology at Yale University's School of Public Health.

"Although we might still be within the midst of what will ultimately be viewed as the early phase of the current outbreak, the possibility of averting calamitous repercussions from an initially delayed and insufficient response is quickly eroding."

In Geneva on Thursday, the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) said 9,936 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had contracted Ebola, of whom 4,877 have died.

Experts have warned the rate of infections could reach 10,000 a week by early December.

Liberia has been worst hit by the outbreak, with 4,665 recorded cases and 2,705 deaths, according to the WHO.

-- Study questioned --

Experts challenged some of the model's assumptions, although they also endorsed the point about early intervention.

"I'm afraid this is an example of a study performed in too much haste and with too little attention to the epidemiological data being collected in the field," said Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London.

"Reality seems to have already made this paper outdated, as the numbers of new cases seem to have plateaued in this area in the last few weeks and may even be declining," Ferguson said in comments to Britain's Science Media Centre.

"It's too early to say whether the ongoing and intense control efforts in Monrovia have yet achieved control or merely slowed the epidemic, but what is being seen on the ground is clearly incompatible with the results in this paper."

Thomas House, an expert in epidemic modelling at Britain's University of Warwick, said infection rates in the current epidemic were sometimes much faster -- but sometimes much slower -- than the smooth "doubling" predicted in the paper.

"No-one is certain why this is, but the broad message that we should intervene early and decisively when confronted with a new outbreak is one of those rare things that all scientists in a field agree on."

The observed total lack of fear on occasions of necessity may come from the hinder reptilian parts, the once in a while wonderful flight to the transcendent from the SuperC, ................it is a true mystery, that Quirk.

Poor allen, I had to go back and find the quoted remarks, now we can dissect the cnversation

allenWed Oct 22, 11:36:00 PM EDT

"Jack HawkinsWed Oct 22, 10:04:00 PM EDTThe Zionists have raveled the world, killing those the deem enemies.Even waiters in Europe that 'looked' like they were someone they were not.

The 'Mossad' has killed scores across Central America, helping to maintain the most rancid regimes in Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador and Honduras. Regimes that even the US refused to support, the Israeli jumped right in, teaching the techniques of population subjugation they had refined in Palestine.Techniques now being aught to US police orces across the land, fuckin' terrible things that are happening while we watch it occur."

Name a single police department trained by Mossad.

"Techniques now being aught (sic) to US police orces (sic) across the land, fuckin' terrible things that are happening while we watch it occur."

Now, dear desk co-ordinator let us begin.It was stated that the Mossad had killed scores in Central America. This was referenced in Guatemala in the statements of Ros Mont, in Guatemala. Done deal.

Now where was it stated that the Mossad was training US police. it was stated that ... Techniques now being aught to US police orces across the land

Please, show us where it was written that the Mossad was doing the teaching.The militarization of the civilian police in the US, is a fuckin' terrible thing.

Why would anyone with any measure of self-respect reprint one of his own posts like that of yours from

"Jack HawkinsWed Oct 22, 10:04:00 PM EDT?

I mean I'd think you would at least paraphrase it so that every other word wasn't (sic). The message itself is unintelligible. If you plugged it into word recognition software you would likely get the start of some story along the lines of Predator III where Mossad agents were killing police orcs in the jungles of Guatamala.

The point of the message? Hard to tell. The argument if there is one doesn't even reach the level of sophistry.

As your editor or for that matter your school marm might suggest, "Time for a rewrite, son".

(CNN) -- A Palestinian-American minor has been killed by the Israel Defense Forces, according to the U.S. State Department. According to a press release from the State Department, the individual was killed Friday during clashes in Silwad, a town in the West ...

A Palestinian-American teenager was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, Friday afternoon, during clashes that erupted in a protest held there weekly.

According to the military, the boy was about to throw a firebomb towards Route 60; an IDF unit positioned nearby opened fire after he had lit the firebomb's fuse, and was preparing to hurl it.

A relative identified the teen as 14-year-old Orwah Hammad and said he was born in New Orleans and came to the West Bank at age six. Hammad's cousin Moath said he was among a group of Palestinians who were throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers.

An Israeli army spokesman told Reuters Israeli forces "managed to prevent an attack when they encountered a Palestinian man hurling a molotov cocktail at them on the main road next to Silwad. They opened fire and they confirmed a hit."

The military said it would investigate the shooting, which occurred amid other clashes in Arab areas in and around Jerusalem in which several people were lightly injured.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called for a "speedy and transparent investigation."

"The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a U.S. citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24," Psaki said.

I am sure the 14 year old climbed through a tunnel carting at least a half dozen Katyusha rockets, had an uncle in Hezbollah, an aunt in Hamas, connections to Iran, a bayonet in his teeth, was on the Mossad watch list and his US family were Democrats.

Now she calls me Uncle.....and has a wonderful job, and is soaring on her own wings....I took her under my wings....they are no longer needed...she wants to pay me back....I refuse.....this is the only conflict we have.....

And private student loans aren't the only problem. Do you know that from 2007 to 2012, the government made $66 billion in profit on federal student loans? We can all debate how our government should generate revenue to support federal spending programs, but doing it on the backs of young adults who need an education to compete in the increasingly competitive global workforce is just appalling.

Even if you don't have student loans, or know someone who does, you better believe this huge debt load is impacting your financial well being. When students of the greatest nation on Earth are buried with student loans, their ability to buy a home, to have disposable income, to be a vital participant of the economy, is greatly reduced.

A new snapshot of consumer debt released by TransUnion shows just what is going on. Total student loan debt has grown more than 150 percent since 2005. Inflation to blame? No. Overall prices rose just 22 percent or so between 2005-2014. The culprit here is more loans being taken out, and more borrowers getting hit with fees and penalties.

According to TransUnion, in 2005 student loans accounted for less than 13 percent of the total debt load for adults age 20-29. Today, student loans account for nearly 37 percent of that group's outstanding debt. Student loan debt's slice of the total debt pie for the age group nearly tripled! The average loan balance for that age group is now more than $25,500, up from $15,900 in 2005. Again, that is way more than inflation...

When [President Lyndon] Johnson sent his secretary of defense, Bob McNamara, to Vietnam right after he succeeded Kennedy, he wanted McNamara to give him a new, fresh look at how the war was going.

It was the end of December or early January 1964. McNamara, the whiz kid, toured the battlefields, listened to the generals’ briefings for days. When he left Vietnam to come back to America, he held a press conference at Tan Son Nhat Airport proclaiming that he was much encouraged, that the South Vietnamese army had shaped up, that all the signs pointed toward progress. It was not the “light at the end of the tunnel” speech, but it was damn near the same. When he landed at Andrews Air Force Base, he told reporters there pretty much the same thing. He was, he said, going to tell the president how much things had improved. And then he took a helicopter to the White House lawn and disappeared into the White House. And nobody knew what he told the president.

But, wonder of wonders, it’s there in the Pentagon Papers. Seven years later, it turned out that when he landed on the White House lawn, he swept into the president’s office and told him that everything was going to hell in a handbasket in Vietnam. [Gen. William] Westmoreland was going to ask for a couple of hundred thousand more GIs, and he, McNamara, would probably support that request.

Just think for a minute how history might have changed if Americans had known then that their leaders felt the war was going to hell in a handbasket!

In the next seven years, thousands of American lives and more thousands of Asian lives would have been saved. The country might never have lost faith in its leaders. Because the country, deep down in their hearts, came to know that their leaders were lying. And that’s the beginning, I think, of a great sea change in this country. They knew it, despite whatever their commander in chief said — they knew it. There wasn’t much anybody could do about it, but they knew it...

It was all about 'national security' even back then though it has grown like Topsee since then.

Let me just take a little riff on this one because it is so outrageous. It’s a civil case where you’re not indicted, but if you lose a civil case, you know damn well you’re going to be indicted. And if you’re indicted and you happen to lose in front of a jury, you know damn well that your newspaper is going to lose all its television stations because a felon can’t own a television station.

But anyway, the high moment for me was when the judge turned to an assistant secretary of defense who was testifying, and he said: “Let’s cut to the chase; let’s get right to the point. What information contained in the Pentagon Papers would most seriously damage the national security of the United States if The Washington Post publishes it?”

The guy went absolutely white — ashen — because he had not read the Pentagon Papers. He immediately asked for a continuation for a few minutes. And we could see them huddling over there, the prosecution team.

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And at the defense table, which had nine of us on it, all mostly reporters — I forget whether Katharine [Graham] was a defendant; I think she was — we had brought a couple of documents with us. And we waited and waited and waited. And, finally, he said he was ready to return to the stand.

The stenotypist read the question back, and he said, “Operation Marigold.” You know, we were all terrified that if it starts with “Operation,” you know that has to be national security. So George Wilson, our Pentagon correspondent, started stirring through a transcript of hearings — not classified hearings — and in the agate print he found a reference to “Operation Marigold.” (In case you’ve forgotten what it was, it was an effort by Lyndon Johnson to enlist the Poles to see if Ho Chi Minh would offer them a deal that he wouldn’t offer to him.) And the following week’s Life magazine had a lead article by Harold Wilson, the prime minister of Great Britain, on Operation Marigold. I mean, it’s just ridiculous.

Even the very best newspapers have never learned how to handle public figures who lie with a straight face. No editor would dare print this version of Nixon’s first comments on Watergate, for instance: “The Watergate break-in involved matters of national security, President Nixon told a national TV audience last night, and for that reason he would be unable to comment on the bizarre burglary. That is a lie.”

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.